10 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



species those of sicca mucli resemble, if it were not that the costal streak is 

 more black than brown, above all between tiie two stigmata, where they 

 form a distinct black spot. Inferior wings entirely pure white. Head, 

 ihora.x; and palpi pale yellow. I have only a single male of which I am 

 ignorant of its locality " (' Noctuelles,' vol. v. p. 135). The pure white liind 

 wings leave me in doul)t as to the specimen being a variety of tliis species. 



Xylophasia, St., sublustris, Esp. 



This species has been mncli mixed up with lithoxylea, many 

 of our early authors treating them as the same species. Hiibner 

 figures (2-iO) a red variety of sublustris, which he calls lithoxylea ; 

 and Haworth, in his 'Lepidoptera Britannica,' p. 169, No. 25, 

 writes with reference to this figure, comparing it with lithoxylea, 

 " at magis ferruginea " ; but as he does not attempt to separate it 

 from lithoxylea, British sublustris may not have been known to 

 him. Guen6e, in his 'Noctuelles,' vol. v. p. 189, states that 

 " Treitschke has confounded the two species, and has cited their 

 synonymy very indistinctly." On p. 14U Guenee also writes, " Is 

 this a separate species, or only a variety of lithoxylea ? .... It is 

 constant in markings and character." Pie then writes : — " Its 

 colour is always more red, and the discoidal spots much better 

 marked; the inferior wings have a very distinct brown discoidal 

 line between the lunule and the hind margin." These characters 

 are distinct, and I think the difference in the hind wings of 

 lithoxylea and sublustris well worthy of notice. 



This interesting species is very variable on the coast of Kent, 

 and specimens exhibit much ditl'erence both in the ground colour 

 and the depth of the markings. Most of the specimens have the 

 anterior wings of a pale ochreous-grey ground colour ; others are 

 decidedly yellowish ochreous, and these lead up to a very distinct 

 form with the ground colour decidedly tinged with red. With 

 respect to the markings, there is also a very great ditl'erence. 

 Some specimens have the characteristic markings in the central 

 part of the wing and on the outer margin very faint, and merging 

 into the ground colour; others have them distinctly marked in 

 dark greyish brown ; others have them marked in deep brown ; 

 while the form mentioned above, with the red ground colour, has 

 them in a clear reddish brown or rust-red, shaded off into the 

 paler ground colour. The specimens also vary with regard to the 

 transverse row of spots parallel to the hind margin ; some speci- 

 mens have these spots absent, some well developed, and some 

 have them joined by curved arches, making a wavy line exactly of 

 the same character and shape as the second transverse line in the 

 allied species polyodon, L. {monoglypha, Hufn.). But the most 

 remarkable specimen I have is one with the whitish ground 

 colour of lithoxylea, with all the markings of sublustris most 

 clearly developed, even to the wavy line mentioned above. There 

 is a great amount of difference also in the quantity of dark scales 



